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Rangers hand White Sox' Sale rare loss

Aug 7, 2014 - 1:08 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Behind two Adam Rosales home runs and 5 2/3 scoreless innings from Nick Tepesch, the Texas Rangers earned their first winning streak in over a month by dealing the Chicago White Sox a 3-1 loss at U.S. Cellular Field.

Rosales' two-run blast in the top of the second was the lone black mark on an otherwise dominant performance by Chicago ace Chris Sale (10-2), who struck out nine and yielded just three hits over six innings, despite receiving his second setback of the season.

The utility man added a solo shot off Daniel Webb in the seventh inning to help Texas record back-to-back victories for the first time since June 27-28.

Tepesch (4-7) halted a long drought of his own after scattering six hits and a walk. The right-hander had dropped four straight decisions since besting Minnesota to begin the Rangers' two-game streak in late June.

"We didn't know what Tepesch would give us after having 10 days off, but today he stayed focused and executed his pitches," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "He did a great job."

The White Sox, outscored by a 46-15 margin in losing four of five, got their lone run on a Dayan Viciedo solo homer in the seventh. Alexei Ramirez finished 3-for-4 in defeat.

Tepesch only struck out two batters and allowed the leadoff man to reach each time between the third and sixth innings. He got needed help in the form of three double plays to protect the 2-0 lead he had been staked to by Rosales.

The first of those twin killings was perhaps the biggest, as Chicago's Alejandro De Aza doubled to lead off the bottom of the third, but was caught off the bag when Gordon Beckham followed with a liner into Rosales' glove at second for a 4-6 putout.

De Aza later singled to begin the White Sox' half of the sixth and was pushed to third on Ramirez's two-out double to left that chased Tepesch. Roman Mendez then entered for Texas and got the dangerous Jose Abreu to ground out and keep it a 2-0 game.

Rosales started off his first career multi-homer outing with an opposite-field shot off Sale that came after the All-Star lefty hit J.P. Arencibia with a pitch top open the second. The long ball was his third in 10 career at-bats against Sale.

"I guess I jinxed myself. I checked [the stats] yesterday just to see, and sure enough, he had two homers," Sale said. "Everyone's got their guy, I guess."

White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton crashed hard into the wall while attempting to retrieve Rosales' early blast, injuring his lower back and being forced to exit the contest.

Webb relieved Sale to begin the seventh and had his seventh pitch of the day deposited over the left-field wall by Rosales to put Texas up 3-0.

Viciedo took Mendez deep in the bottom of the inning to answer for Chicago, but the White Sox managed just one more hit the rest of the way. Neftali Feliz fanned the only two hitters he faced in the ninth to close out the win and register his fourth save of the year.

Game Notes

The Rangers won consecutive games on the road for the first time since June 13-14 at Seattle, and had lost seven straight series as the visitor after taking that set from the Mariners ... Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus ended 2- for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games ... Ramirez now owns a nine- game hit streak for the White Sox ... De Aza, who sat out Tuesday's 16-0 loss to the Rangers with a bruised knee, went 2-for-2.